Plans for Louisville's first Menards advance

A Menards home improvement store is proposed for just southeast of Preston Highway and Cooper Chapel Road. Pictured was the sign outside Menards on Veterans Parkway in Jeffersonville, east of Interstate 65.(Photo: CJ file photo)Buy Photo

A needed rezoning request for the first Menards home-improvement store in Jefferson County, proposed just southeast of Preston Highway and Cooper Chapel Road, has cleared the Metro Planning Commission.

The commission voted without opposition at a meeting Thursday to recommend that the Louisville Metro Council give the final approval to the application of Menards for rezoning at a 33.8-acre site on the east side of Preston in southern Jefferson County.

The proposed Louisville Menard's would be developed on 20 acres at the Preston Highway site. Plans call for a big box store with 203,000 square feet of space, a 53,660-square-foot storage building and an outdoor storage yard spanning 187,338 square feet.

The planners on Thursday approved a waiver for Menards for around 450 parking spaces, a reduction from the normally required 609 spaces, based on the development's square footage. Menards produced a study that indicated the lesser parking would be sufficient.

The Menards site is in an area of Jefferson County that has been heavily developed. In addition to the Menards store, the site plan also provides for the commercial development of five parcels totaling nearly 14 acres surrounding the main store. The five tracts range from about two-thirds of an acre to just over five acres.

William Bardenwerper, the zoning attorney for Menards, told the commission Thursday that Menards intends to sell the five surrounding parcels to developers. The buyers would have to submit detailed plans for each tract to the commission for approval before any construction could begin.

Menards plans extensive screening around the storage yard. Menards agents said the existing tree canopy on the property will not be retained, but a larger tree canopy will be planted.

The target property is under title to numerous land owners, but Menards has it all under contract.

The Metro Council only rarely overturns zoning recommendations by the Planning Commission, and no one spoke in opposition to the Menards plans at the commission public hearing Thursday at the Old Jail Building downtown.

If the council does approve the zoning, construction of the store could begin in early 2018, with a mid-2019 store opening, Bardenwerper said.

The planned store hours will be 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Menards is a privately held company with about 300 stores in more than a dozen states. It is the third-largest home improvement chain in the country, behind The Home Depot and Lowe's. Menards has its headquarters in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at 502-582-7089, or via email at sshafer@courier-journal.com.